We Wish You A Merry Christmas
by Matt1969
Summary: How hard can it be to write Christmas cards? Most folks would think easy, but not Jack and Sam.


TITLE: We Wish You a Merry Christmas…  
AUTHOR: Matt, December 2003  
SUMMARY: How hard can it be to write Christmas cards?  
RATING: G  
DISCLAIMER: The characters within this piece are the property of MGM, Gekko et al. The piece is mine.  
SEASON/SPOILERS: Future fic, no spoilers that I can spot.  
NOTE: As usual, this year I procrastinated when it came to writing Christmas cards – which is a foolish thing to do when you have to beat international mailing dates. This one particular card just leaped out of me when I was at the card store and it screamed inspiration.  
THANKS: To Venom and Allie for the read through – always appreciated.

* * *

The end of the pen was chewed - a sure indication that the brain cells were having difficulty. The problem lay in front of him and it showed no signs of disappearing any time soon. He gave a weary sigh and chewed again.

The other occupant in the room looked up at the sound of the sigh. She knew he was having difficulty, but he'd wanted to do this himself. It had been important that he conquer this task.

Still, she blamed herself. The comment she'd made earlier had just slipped out after she'd seen his first attempts.

"Don't just sign our names on the card - write something!"

He'd looked curiously at her. "Like what?"

It was a good question. She'd been at a loss herself. Perhaps she was being a touch hypocritical, but the white card looked so bleak with just a "Jack & Sam" scrawled in tiny handwriting. At least her writing was larger so that she could fill a good part of the blank space available. It still amazed how he could have such small writing. It just didn't fit somehow.

"How about Merry Christmas?" she suggested.

"It already says that inside the card!"

Oh. Mind you, the cards she'd used had had a flowing little poem about greetings of the season. The words Merry and Christmas hadn't been printed so it had been an easy matter to write in the phrase.

She returned to the journal article regarding a new spatial theory, but she could tell his problem still hadn't resolved itself. She was almost tempted to tell him to forget about it, but instead said, "How about Hope to See You Soon?"

He looked up and scowled. "They live so far away. I doubt we'll be seeing them any time soon."

She let out a slight laugh. "Jack, they're only in Washington."

"So? Sam, we're more likely to see your dad before we see them again and he's on another planet." He sighed again. "These are people you only see at weddings and funerals. I don't know about you, but I've no desire to die anytime soon."

She resisted the urge to tell him that if he was dead he most likely wouldn't be seeing the people who came to his funeral. He did have a point though. There'd been O'Neill clan members at their wedding she knew she'd most likely never meet again.

"How about a news note? Something like, we are settling into married life nicely and looking forward to celebrating our first Christmas together?"

The look she received told her plenty about what he thought of that. Jack O'Neill was not exactly the most romantic man on the planet, or even in the galaxy for that matter. It was definitely a miracle that they'd even managed to get together, let alone married. Sam figured the rock that had made her stumble straight into him was definitely deserving of a medal if anyone had an idea what medal you could actually give a rock.

Things had moved pretty quickly after that.

Which was just as well since he'd already been out of the chain of command for six months when she'd tripped at the off-world site he'd commanded at the time.

"Got it!"

She cocked her head at him, wordlessly asking him to continue.

"We wish you a merry Christmas and a Goa'uld free New Year."

She groaned. "It scans well," she told him. It was the only thing the phrase had going for it. His cousins would never get the joke.

The pen was flung onto the table. "What exactly did you write in yours, Sam?"

Oh dear. Perhaps she shouldn't have pushed him quite so far. After all, she'd not actually known him to write Christmas cards before. Each year she and Daniel had dutifully distributed cards to their team mates and others they worked with. Even Teal'c had got into the spirit eventually, handing out cards with cute children making equally cute snowmen on them. For seven years though, Jack had steadfastly refused to contribute.

She'd, therefore, been very surprised when he'd picked up the box of cards in the store one day and stated that he supposed their Christmas card list would now be combined and therefore doubled in size. While she'd still been doing her best not to look completely shocked he'd added the disclaimer that he was not going to send cards to any of the Tok'ra except one. She'd nodded wordlessly and allowed him to put the card box into their shopping cart.

"Sam?"

He was waiting for her answer. She took a deep breath. "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, with love from Sam and Jack."

He stared at her. "That was it?" he asked in disbelief.

She nodded.

He cast a glance down at the card in front of him, sighed and applied his pen. He then pushed the card to the side and started on the next one.

Curiosity got the better of her and she put down the journal so she could pick up one of the finished cards.

Inside, in that tiny scrawl that passed as handwriting he'd written, 'Jack and Sam.'

Oh well. At least he'd not recommended that the recipient have a 'Goa'uld free New Year.'

FINIS


End file.
